Oregon State Fair

For some reason which is completely opaque to me, a lot of Portlanders seem to be very sniffy about the State Fair. This is their loss but your gain, as I-5 remains clear and you can get there in an hour. You can easily spend an entire day at the fair and still only experience a fraction of what it has to offer. This includes:

• Large numbers of extremely cute animals.
• Remarkable displays of talent, skill and craftsmanship from across the age range and from across the state; everything from horsemanship and cake decorating to welding and poetry.
• Special exhibitions – last year we had animatronic dinosaurs, this year everything from samurai lego to a Civil War reenactment.
• Lots of fun activities and competitions for children, such as sheep-riding and melon-seed spitting.
• Fair food! Don’t pretend like you don’t want a walla-walla onion flower or an elephant’s ear – you’re not fooling anyone.
• Demos of literally hundreds of gadgets you had no idea existed and you have no possible use for. Oddly captivating, though.
• A chairlift from one end of the fair to the other, offering great views.
• A huge fun fair of carnival rides and games.

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